# The 23 Best Psychological Thriller Manga of All Time

> Mind games, unreliable narrators and moral dilemmas drive every story here. Some are cat-and-mouse classics; others creep up slowly.

*By YPB Team · Published October 31, 2026 · https://youpick.best/ranking/the-23-best-psychological-thriller-manga-of-all-time*

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## Current results (no votes yet)

1. **Death Note** — score 1000/1000
   Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's battle of wits (2003–2006) between a student with a killing notebook and the detective L.
2. **Monster** — score 792/1000
   Naoki Urasawa's thriller (1994–2001) about a surgeon hunting the charismatic killer whose life he once saved.
3. **My Home Hero** — score 550/1000
   Naoki Yamakawa and Masashi Asaki's crime thriller, launched in 2017, about a father who kills his daughter's yakuza boyfriend.
4. **As the Gods Will** — score 550/1000
   Muneyuki Kaneshiro's survival manga (2011–2017) in which students face lethal children's games.
5. **Billy Bat** — score 498/1000
   Naoki Urasawa and Takashi Nagasaki's conspiracy thriller (2008–2016) about a cartoonist and a mysterious bat image.
6. **Alice in Borderland** — score 440/1000
   Haro Aso's survival thriller (2010–2016) about players forced into deadly games in an empty Tokyo.
7. **Tomodachi Game** — score 440/1000
   Mikoto Yamaguchi and Yuki Sato's manga, launched in 2013, in which friends are pitted against each other in psychological games.
8. **Liar Game** — score 440/1000
   Shinobu Kaitani's manga (2005–2015) about an honest student forced into high-stakes games of deception.
9. **Inside Mari** — score 440/1000
   Shuzo Oshimi's psychological manga (2012–2016) about a recluse who wakes up in the body of a girl he stalked.
10. **Summertime Rendering** — score 372/1000
   Yasuki Tanaka's time-loop mystery thriller (2017–2021) set on a small island haunted by doppelgangers.
11. **Usogui** — score 372/1000
   Toshio Sako's gambling and lie-detection thriller (2006–2018) centred on the gambler Baku Madarame.
12. **Kakegurui** — score 372/1000
   Homura Kawamoto and Toru Naomura's manga, launched in 2014, set at a school ruled by high-stakes gambling.
13. **Kaiji** — score 372/1000
   Nobuyuki Fukumoto's gambling thriller, launched in 1996, about a debt-ridden man in deadly games run by a loan-shark empire.
14. **Blood on the Tracks** — score 372/1000
   Shuzo Oshimi's psychological thriller (2017–2023) about a boy and his suffocatingly possessive mother.
15. **Erased** — score 293/1000
   Kei Sanbe's time-travel mystery (2012–2016) in which a man returns to his childhood to stop a serial killer.
16. **Real Account** — score 293/1000
   Okushou and Shizumu Watanabe's thriller (2014–2019) about social media users trapped in a deadly online game.
17. **One Outs** — score 293/1000
   Shinobu Kaitani's baseball manga (1998–2006) driven by the mind games of a gambling pitcher.
18. **Talentless Nana** — score 293/1000
   Looseboy and Iori Furuya's thriller, launched in 2016, about a girl secretly sent to kill her superpowered classmates.
19. **Platinum End** — score 293/1000
   Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata's thriller (2015–2021) about humans chosen by angels to compete to become God.
20. **MPD Psycho** — score 293/1000
   Eiji Otsuka and Sho-u Tajima's crime thriller (1997–2016) about a detective with multiple personalities hunting serial killers.
21. **Pluto** — score 200/1000
   Naoki Urasawa's murder-mystery reimagining (2003–2009) of an Astro Boy story arc.
22. **20th Century Boys** — score 200/1000
   Naoki Urasawa's conspiracy thriller (1999–2006) about childhood friends confronting a cult leader called "Friend".
23. **The Promised Neverland** — score 0/1000
   Kaiu Shirai and Posuka Demizu's thriller (2016–2020) about orphans planning an escape from a sinister farm.

Tags: thriller, manga, psychological, mystery